Anonymous limerick:


The Course of Syphilis


There was a young man from Black Bay

Who thought syphilis just went away

He believed that a chancre

Was only a canker

That healed in a week and a day.


But now he has “acne vulgaris” –

(Or whatever they call it in Paris);

On his skin it has spread

From his feet to his head,

And his friends want to know where his hair is.


There’s more to his terrible plight>

His pupils won’t close in the light

His heart is cavorting,

His wife is aborting,

And he squints through his gun-barrel sight.


Arthralgia cuts into his slumber;

His aorta is in need of a plumber;

But now he has tabes,

And saber-shinned babies,

While of gummas he has quite a number.


He’s been treated in every known way,

But his spirochetes grow day by day;

He’s developed paresis,

Has long talks with Jesus,

And thinks he’s the Queen of the May.


(P. 765 in: Prescott, L.M., Harley, J.P.

and Klein, D.A.: Microbiology, 3^rd Ed.,

Wm.C.Brown Publ., Dubuque 1996)





Anonymní limerik:


Průběh syfilis


Byl jeden mladý lovec žen

Syfilis? Řek‘ si: drobnost jen

Myslel že jeho tvrdý vřed

Je legrace co zmizí hned

Že uzdraví se za týden


Akné vulgaris dostal však

(v Paříži jmenují to tak?)

Vyrážka divná jakási

Od palců nohou po vlasy

Jež ostatně mu slezly pak.


Nemá to však jen na kůži.

Zorničky světlo neúží

I srdce se mu krabatí

A jeho žena potratí

Šilháním taky neduží.


Bolestí spát už nezvládá

Aorta se mu rozpadá

Tabické strasti překruté

A děti? Nožky zahnuté!

A v těle gummat nadvláda.


Jak mohli, tak ho léčili

Mikrob byl ale přečilý

Obrna tělo přemohla

modlitba zázrak nezmohla;

nakonec z toho zešílí.


Přeložil O. Z.